To take a look at our Main Ingredient blogs, follow the link: http://adamastorbacchus.blogspot.com/because to tell our whole story here would take too
much space and you can also read earlier blogs. Click on underlined and Bold wordsin the text of this editionto
open links to pictures, blogs, pertinent websites or more information.
Follow us on Twitter: @mainingmenu

Main Ingredient's On Line Shopis performing very well. We
are continuing to update it with new products and with photographs of products.
Please do not
pay until we have confirmed availability and invoiced you. When you
make an eft payment, make sure that it says who you are. Use the form on the
website to email us your order and we will send you the final invoice once
we’ve made sure stock is available. Click here to see the shop.

This week’s Product menuSupplies of 500ml cans of walnut oil are running low
from our supplier, so we may have a shortage soon. We still have a few cans and
will try to secure an alternative supply. Argan oil is still freely available
and so is hazelnut oil. Good Italian truffle oils are always on our shelf.
Exotic spices are regularly asked for and Ottolenghi’s popularity has increased
demand for sumac, za’atar, baharat and ras el hanout. We are investigating
various new French and Italian products and look forward to giving you details
quite soon.

We have a lot of fun putting MENU together each week and, of course, doing
the things we write about, but making it possible for you to enjoy rare and
wonderful gourmet foods is what drives our business. We stock a good range of ingredients and
delicious ready-made gourmet foods. You can contact us by emailor phone, or through our website.
We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa.

Our market activitiesTomorrow, Friday, February 23rd,
we will be back at the market in Long Beach Mall, Sun Valley, Fish Hoek. Come
and visit us at the Old Biscuit Mill’s wonderfully exciting, atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as
always, this Saturday and every Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00. Tip:
Some visitors tell us how they struggle to find parking. It’s quite easy if you
know how. Click here for a map which shows
where we park.

The Taste of Cape Town Competition This excellent
food show will take place on the 11th to 14th of April at Green Point and we
have ten pairs of general entry tickets for the first day to give away. All you
have to do is answer this simple question: How many years, including this one,
has this show been held in Cape Town? The first 10 correct answers by email get
the tickets. Please send us your name and contact details with the answer. If
you don’t win tickets, you can take advantage of the Early Bird special by
saving R30 on a standard ticket if bought from 19th February to 3rd March. All
tickets can be bought online
from www.itickets.co.za
or by calling ITickets on 0861000291. Children under 12 enter for free. For
updates on the festival line-up, news on chefs and their dishes, stay in touch
on Facebook www.facebook.com/tasteofcapetown
or Twitter: @tasteofCT
or visit www.tasteofcapetown.com

The fun of Franschhoek on a tramWe were
invited by Franschhoek Tourism to come and experience their newest tourist
draw, the Franschhoek Wine Tram. Passengers can hop on and off at the 7 stops
through the vineyards and centre of Franschhoek on the open-sided tram and tram
bus visiting farms and restaurants on the way. We collected our tickets at the
Ticket office around the corner from the Tourist office and, as we had just
missed a tram bus, headed by car to Haute Cabrière to be in time for their
cellar tour. Please note: The cost of this tour is not included in the price of
the tram ticket and costs R50 a person - we only found out about this when we
arrived. Also their tour is very popular, so you should book them before you
come. Click here. After an excellent
tour, we left our car there, boarded the tram bus and were off to the next stop
at Dieu Donné, a first visit for us. The open sided bus rackets along the roads
of Franschhoek at a rapid pace and is quite noisy, so you can’t hear much of
what is being said, but is great fun.

Dieu Donné is quite a way up the hill and has
lovely views over the valley. You get a free tasting of four of their wines so
you have to choose carefully - they have a long list. If you want to taste more,
you have to pay R15 for 4 wines. Their Merlot is excellent and we really liked
their Rosé. We had a look at their restaurant ROCA and decided we definitely
have to come back and try the food.

Then
it was off to Chamonix, where we had booked for lunch. In good weather you are
seated outside under umbrellas, on a lovely deck over a stream, and it is cool
and leafy. This is not a place for a simple lunch and we were a little
surprised at the prices. John had a duck confit on lentils and Lynne calf’s
liver on mash. There was nothing else on the plate. We did not realise that
vegetables etc., all come as extras, which does make lunch quite expensive, so
we did not order them. We had a glass of wine (the Semillon/sauvignon blend) each
and a coffee and our bill with service was R440. Chamonix charges for wine
tastings.

Then
it was back onto the bus and off to the stop where you transfer to the tram. At
this stage, you could stop and have lunch in town. The tram is lovely and
smooth on the railway tracks and we could see harvesting going on as we
travelled through the vineyards to the end stop at Rickety Bridge. We didn’t
get off here (many people did) as we had recently been there for lunch and a tasting,
but you do get a complimentary wine tasting there and the restaurant is tapas
style so we do thoroughly recommend it as a lunch stop. On the way back you get the option to stop at
Grande Provence, where they offer a tasting of their entry level wine Angel’s Tears.
Sadly, they do not lay on any transport from the tram to the winery and we were
told that we had to walk there and it would take 10 to 15 minutes each way. Not
much of an incentive and it sends a very clear message. As the afternoon was
very warm (over 30ºC), not one person got off the tram.

So we
rode the tram back into the centre of Franschhoek, climbed back on the bus and
returned to Cabrière to collect our car. It is a lovely trip with superb
helpful and friendly staff, but we do wonder what it will be like in the cooler
months of the year with the open windows. The tram runs between 10h00 and 15h20.
Click here for
details. No map of the route is provided at the tourist
office, so be sure to download one from the website so you can see where you
are going. Click here to see our photos

First Harvest in Newlands in 150 years at the Vineyard Hotel!We were delighted and proud when the Vineyard
Hotel gave us one of their very special grapevines in their small Sauvignon
Blanc and Semillon vineyard on the bank of the Liesbeek River. These grapes were
replanted five years ago and, while there were grapes last year, the bad
weather and mould meant no harvest then. After the wonderfully wet winter we
had and the nice long ripening season, they are celebrating a very good harvest
this year of approximately 80 kilos of healthy grapes from the 100 young vines.
Click here to see the video on U-tube and click here to see our photographs of the early morning
picking

Enrica Rocca Cooking School class with Emma VigneriWe were invited to take part in a class
with Emma this Tuesday at her house in Constantia and had a marvellous time. We
helped and watched her cook four classic Italian dishes and enjoyed ourselves
immensely. Emma believes, as we do, that you should use nothing but the best
ingredients and cook them in the traditional way, although with all the different
regions in Italy, there are quite a few variations. We had a very deep group
discussion of what people think should go into Minestrone! There were only two
other people taking part in the class and it was a very friendly and happy
evening, culminating in a wonderful meal of all the food that had been
prepared. Click here to see more detail on our blog of what was cooked. If you
are interested in these classes, contact Emma on 082 378 8855. Click here for the web page of the cookery school.

Prices
on the web page are in Euros, so in Rand they are: 1 month course (every Monday
for 4 lessons) R1800 per person. Half day course (Tuesday evening or Friday
lunch) R600 per person. Full day (only Sundays) R1850 per person. She does
reduce the price if a couple books together.

She
is also prepared to use her house and cookery for private evenings or for
functions. And she does cater in other people’s houses, but she believes that
it is so convenient to have a nice place (that is not a restaurant) were you
can relax, enjoy real home cooking and don’t have the stress of washing the
dishes afterwards. She says she really loves to entertain and feed people.

This week’s recipe When we left, Emma insisted
we help ourselves to some of the glut of vegetables from her garden, so Lynne
took a large oversized courgette marrow that weighed about a kilo. This week’s
recipe is the result and we served it last night at a dinner party. It was full
of flavour, with a smooth thick consistency, without the addition of any cream
or flour. If the outside skin is soft you do not need to peel the courgettes.
They will add a lovely green colour to the soup.

Fry
the onions in a little oil and butter in a large soup pot, until they are just
beginning to caramelise. In a separate frying pan, fry the courgette cubes till
they begin browning on all sides. Add them to the pot with the onions. Pour in
the stock and add the herbs, nutmeg, verjuice and parmesan. Cook for about 10
minutes then blend to a thick soup. Adjust the seasoning. Serve with the blue
cheese and let everyone add some to their soup. Or you can serve this with some
basil pesto and add a dollop to each bowl. We served it with a 2009 Spier
Private Collection Chenin Blanc, which was an excellent match.

There is a huge and rapidly growing
variety of interesting things to occupy your leisure time here in the Western
Cape. There
are so many interesting things to do in our world of food and wine that we have
made separate list for each month for which we have information. To see what’s happening in our world of
food and wine (and a few other cultural events), visitour Events Calendar.
All the events are listed in date order and we already have a large number of
exciting events to entertain you right through the year.

Learn about wine and cookingWe receive a lot of enquiries from people who want to learn more about wine. Cathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academyboth run wine
education courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see
details of Cathy’s WSET and other courses here and here and the CWA courses here.

Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of
cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here.
Pete Ayub, who makes our very popular Prego sauce, runs evening cooking classes
at Sense of Taste, his catering company in Maitland. We can recommend them very
highly, having enjoyed his seafood course. Check
his programme here. Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has cooking
classes in Fish Hoek and conducts cooking tours to Normandy. You can see more details here. Emma
Vigneri teaches Enrica Rocca classes in classic Italian cooking at her home in
Constantia. See more here. Brett Nussey has
moved his Stir Crazy Cooking School into Dish Food & Social’s premises in
Main Road, Observatory. See it here.

21st February 2013

Remember- if you can’t find something,
we’ll do our best to get it for you, and, if you’re in Cape Town or elsewhere
in the country, we can send it to you! Check our product list for details and
prices.

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About us

MENU,our weekly email newsletter, started as an advertising medium for Main Ingredient, our specialist retail grocery business. We opened our Sea Point shop in December 2002 because the limited range of food products available in the supermarkets frustrated us. We realised that there was a place in South Africa for a grocer catering to people who share our tastes and needs. We moved the shop on line in 2010, but have now discontinued it, having decided that it is time to “retire” and concentrate on our writing, photography and tour guiding. MENU has a wide circulation and is read nationally and internationally.

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